Choosing Industrial Property for Lease

Some of the major considerations for choosing industrial space include:

Location

Accessibility

Layout

Price

Future expansion

Job market

You must also know what kind of industrial property will best serve your purpose. These include:

Warehouse /distribution buildings

Manufacturing buildings

Cold storage/refrigeration buildings

Data hosting/telecom centers

Flex buildings

Light manufacturing buildings

Showroom buildings

R&D buildings

Wet lab/biotech buildings

The type of industrial space you choose ultimately depends on which one best serves your purpose. Two of the most common industrial property types you’ll find in St. Louis metro are warehouse and flex buildings.

Market Updates

The industrial market had a 5.3% vacancy rate in Q4 2017, with a total net absorption of positive 85,393 square feet. Vacant sublease space went up in the same quarter, at 248,167 square feet. Rental rates were at $4.57, which increased from a previous quarter.

Warehouse projects had a 5.2% vacancy rate, up from 4.7% from the previous quarter. Flex projects had a 7.7% vacancy rate, up from 7.5% in Q3.

Six industrial buildings totaling 1,380,883 square feet were delivered to the market, while 1,673,340 square feet of industrial space remained under construction towards the end of Q4.

Flex projects had a sublease space vacancy of 8,600 square feet, an increase from 3,600 square feet in Q3.

Warehouse projects had a sublease vacancy of 239,567 square feet, up from 161,134 square feet in Q3.

The average asking rental rate for industrial space in the St. Louis market area was $4.57 per square foot per year, representing a 1.3% increase in quoted rental rates Q3, when the average asking rental rate was $4.51 per square foot.

Total inventory for industrial properties in St. Louis’ market area amounted to 6,248 buildings with a total of 272,219,892 square feet as of Q4.

The flex sector was comprised of 581 projects with a total of 16,399,924 square feet, while the warehouse sector consisted of 5,667 buildings that amounted to 255,819,968 square feet.